This could go sideways

Posted
May 20, 2016

In just a couple of weeks, Hamilton's Light Rail Transit implementation plan has gone from right-on-schedule to a political fiasco in serious danger of failing altogether. If you have not already written a message to Council telling them to stay the course on the city's LRT plan, please do so:

After eight years of consistently voting in favour of Hamilton's LRT plan, several councillors suddenly aren't sure if they support it - and at least one is now opposed. Since 2008, Council demonstrated a steady understanding of the case for Hamilton's LRT plan in their votes for every stage of its development.

They understood why city staff, transportation consultant Steer Davies Gleave, independent university researchers and the Province in its Benefits Case Analysis all recommended investing in LRT and starting with the east-west B-Line as as the best choice for overall benefits.

They also understood the sense of urgency to get the plan completed and put out to a contract by early 2018 in order to lock in the funding in the possibility of a change of provincial government.

But today, issues that were long settled on clear evidence are suddenly up for debate again. Make no mistake: many of the people demanding that we revisit whether to build LRT or BRT, or whether to build the B-Line or the A-Line first, or whether to go on King Street or Main Street, are doing so in order to cause so much noise and confusion that the project gets bogged down and fails by default.

We can't let that happen.

Now, more than ever, we need to send a strong, clear message to Council that we expect them to lead on this critical, generational issue. No more games. No more divisive hyperbole. No more playing fast and loose with the city's future.

Council needs to hear from you. They need to know that Hamiltonians are paying careful attention and that we will not sit back and allow cynical politicking to derail our shared potential.

Please take a few moments to add your voice. If you already have done so, please accept our thanks - but take a few minutes to reach out to the other people in your networks and ask them to learn about the issue and share their support.

This will only succeed if we all pull together to demand that Council does the right thing.

Featured Statement

Please just build the LRT. Building for density, better tax revenue, energy efficiency and disaster resiliency is simply keeping pace with the world. We seriously risk falling behind decades economically. Again. We are like the underdog superstar of Canadian Real-Estate right now. We could be the Portland, OR of Ontario.

I think this issue is a sign of our civic low self-esteem. We can be world class. We are in many respects and need to embrace change not recoil. Hamilton RESPECT YOURSELF!

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